"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."- John Dewey.
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Friday, June 23, 2006

Managed Meritocracy: More Than It Meets The Eye

We all know about the "meritocracy" issue relating to entry into our local public university and colleges. Our civil servants at the Ministry of Higher Education insists that the "managed meritocracy" system we have at the moment is one that is fair and transparent.

However, we (and that probably includes the officials themselves) all know that we are only kidding ourselves if an 'A' in the matriculation entry system is completely equivalent to an 'A' from the STPM examinations. As highlighted by an insider within the University Malaya Medical faculty in an email to Sdr Lim Kit Siang, the students who fail in the university examinations at the faculty comprised entirely of matriculation students.

But I'm writing here not to debate further about the above issue - I really don't think there's much left to say, which won't be just a regurgitation of common knowledge. Instead, I'm interested in highlighting potentially blatant and opaque unmeritocratic practices, even within the "managed meritocracy" framework we have today. That means that assuming we accept the Ministry's premise that both university entrance systems are completely equivalent, I believe that unmeritocratic practices are still pretty much entrenched in the system.

Based on what I've read and discovered over the past few days, there were persistent questions as to why a candidate with results such of 3A and 1B for STPM is unable to gain entry into courses of his or her choice, especially since he or she avoided the wildly popular choices such as medicine? I blogged about this issue here.

As expected the above candidate wasn't an exception in the system. The New Straits Times reported that

...1,796 applicants are particularly upset. They did not get seats as they had earlier refused the option of any other subject, other than the eight they had picked in the application form.

They are particularly irked as they had good results, with most scoring a CGPA of 3.6 or 3.7.

Hence, there are clearly many students with very good results who have not been able to secure any seats in our local public universities. Note however, that some of these students may have indicated that they were only interested in medicine, and nothing else.

On top of that, we read that CYP, in a letter published in the Star that he was rejected for a place to study Mechanical Engineering despite having a perfect CGPA of 4.0, and participated in the National Service programme which contributed additional co-curricular points. He was instead offered his 4th choice of Environmental Engineering.

The above cases only leads me to one conclusion - while students are offered places at our universities "meritocratically", placements at the various faculties and universities appear to be conducted in an opaque fashion with mysterious criteria.

How can a student with near perfect university entrance scores be denied a place in say mechanical engineering at presumably Universiti Malaya (UM) unless the Ministry can substantiate that all the students accepted for mechanical engineering at UM and other universities of CYP's choice, had equivalent or better scores?

This leads to the next question for our Minister of Higher Education - if not by university entrance scores which comprised of a candidates CGPA for his examinations (90%) and his or her co-curricular activities (10%), what other criteria were used to determine which faculty or course a candidate is offered?

In seeking greater clarification on the supposed meritocratic system of course and faculty placement, the Ministry of Higher Education should publish statistics of the highest and lowest university entrance scores accepted for individual courses by university. This way, if the candidate with the lowest entrance score accepted for Mechanical Engineering at UM is say, 75, then it is proof that even our "managed meritocracy" system cannot be taken at face value.

And if indeed our "managed meritocracy" is a bit of a farce, the Ministry of Higher Education should come clean with the exact criteria used to determine faculty and course placements - are we looking at some "innocent" but sophisticated random calculator or some classified and sinister social engineering programme?

46 comments:

ken
said...

For the case of CYP, he/she should be glad that he's been offered his preferred option both in NUS and Nanyang Tech U in Singapore. Why opt for UM which ranks 169th while there are choices in the top 50 in the world? With his perfect scores, scholarships and allowances are abound and waiting to be grabbed. He can even try to apply for Oxbridge and Ivy League U in US.

Seems like Malaysia do not require or value highly skilled workers but prefer unskilled labour especially those from Indonesia.

Maybe it is all about social engineering or to be blunt racial/religious discrimination.

The obvious is staring straight in your face but can you see it.

The objective is clearly to uphold the supremacy of one particular community oblivious to the globalized competition among nations. No wonder, Malaysia is beginning to lack behind other nation.

That favoured community stand little chance to compete in the global market.

The main benificiaries are few with ill-gotten wealth, in power, who uses such rhetoric policy to gain support from this majority community.

In contrast to developed nations, where citizens of all colour belong to the nation. Where ethnicity and religious followers are groups within the community with diverse cultural background. Where the poor and the marginalized are the favoured group to be singled out for deserving handouts and support.

How can the ruling elite be so blind? Could it be because of their strong faith in their religion, hence blind to the reality, commonsense and fairplay?

These top students who achieve outstanding academic results should try apply NUS/NTU and other foreign universities. But make no mistake as a place is not guaranteed even with such excellent grades (SPM 9As & A-Levels 3As) still being lumped into the "conditional" group or "second round" intake.

MHE will never publish the statistics as Tony mentioned simply because if they do, it will just give concrete evidence that our university system is based on political influences and racial discrimination. Our ministers are not that brave enough to stand firm on their two feet away from their political parties and its beliefs. What with our Minister of Education branding a keris in defense of the Ketuanan Melayu and constantly threatening with Article 153, just shows the current willingness of our government to change its policies.

with problems like these, i wonder why elections after elections BN is still in power. oh, ya, it is we the chinese voters who voted them in! i really dun understand why the chinese are whinning on a yearly basis on some so-called less-meritocratic and unfair policies and trends that were approved by the chinese voters during elections. everyone in america knew that by voting bush in, war in iraq would be inevitable. everyone knows that as long as BN is in power, these distasteful news on how qualified non-bumis fail to enter ipta due to undisclosed reasons would emerge. hence, it would be like a blessing by the non-bumi voters for the gov to implement apartheid policies.

we should not forget that in the last general election, BN almost got kicked out if not for the "blessings" of non-bumi voters who support and condone apartheism. so, stop whinning and accept the "fruits of your own labour".

BTW, talking about the "random calculator" in how the ministry allocates students to their courses, here's an example of how "random" it can be.

X achieved 4As for STPM and applies for bio-related courses - biotech, biomed, pharm, food tech, etc. Filled out all 8 accordingly giving various choices on courses and universities. The result by the ministry = forrestry in Sabah. Go figure.

Talk about randomization, I think the buggers at the ministry are playing some sort of wheel-of-fortune type spin selector. Except, there is no fortune to any of these students at the end of it. Only dread and ridiculous outcomes. And that's the dilemma for these students. They don't complain to the presses, and they make up for the majority of top students being given ridiculous courses at even more ridiculous places. What can they do? No money, no choice. Another brilliant mind goes to waste. Indeed, this is a sinister social engineering programme being administered to the masses, to cleanse this country of intelligent students whilst a select group is promoted because of ethnicity. Honestly, this reminds me of the Third Reich and The Great Purge of 1933 (see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Law_of_the_Restoration_of_the_Civil_Service)

Quote "[i]with problems like these, i wonder why elections after elections BN is still in power. oh, ya, it is we the chinese voters who voted them in![/i]"

For your information, there is still a large portion of voters who are elders (old ppl) with their own kind of "antique" mindset that just wouldn't budge for the next millenia. The reason? PEACE and SECURITY. They may have feared something untowards will happen if new breeds take off. Unlike the new or young voters, they are deprived of what the young ones will think trendy and up-to-date like new technological advances such as Internet and blogs. They still fully trust the conventional methods coffee/tea time talks and heavily-controlled newspapers.

Worse still, due to poverty in the past, many are either receive no formal education or [i]word-handicapped[/i]. What can we expect from these voters? The ones who suffer the most(rights deprivation) aren't them, but their children and their childrens' children...

If America, a superpower nation with its intelligent society still able to vote a dummy for a 2nd term, then what more Malaysia? The general public is uninformed and naive. They are easily sweet-talked for their votes. Unless we are going undergoing tremendous physical torment (e.g. civil war), the public will still go with the majority and its sugar-coated promises.

Indeed, something is wrong with the system. Perhaps i am one lucky guy here. I was offered my first choice in UM back then after my STPM. However, i turned it down and go down south, NUS. Stupid or smart?

Just to share something and this is not a joke. Most of my friends are Dean Listers back in local universities while i am suffocating to maintain my second lower here. Well, my friends' performances were below me back in high school. I am wondering what happened to me here. Perhaps too many bikini girls affected my concentration :P

i'm sure there are young and educated chinese who also vote for BN during elections, and after elections, whine at all the "wrong" policies BN adopts.and it has been going on like this for the past 49 years. alas, when i say educated, it does cover the chinese who are doctors, engineers, accountants, etc etc who know nothing beyond their scope of studies. the old chinese arent the only ones who gain their "political knowledge" at coffee shops and gov controlled papers. sigh. i've even encountered a young chinese health proffesional who thought MCA was a member of the opposition.

Yes, the rot in our education does not end at scholarships and admission. The standard is appalling. If anyone has been to a public uni, you will know what I mean. 2/3 of a class will easily score As and at least 1/2 will graduate with 1st class. Ridiculous! Maybe that's why so many people wants a place in our "prestigious" universities, cause they're bloody easy to score and be in the Deans List. And sadly, our employers (especially those who crave for "high" grades) think they're actually as good as what they're grades say. Well, it's no surprise then that most of the unemployable grads are from our "prestigious" public Us.

Another warning for recruiters who get applicants from our private universities (MMU and UNITEN). These universities practice a retake policy meaning a student can continue to retake subjects if they're not satisfied with their results. Even for final year subjects where classification takes place, students are allowed to "push-up" their grades to graduate with a higher class.

Example, Ah Chong gets a B- average for his final year, which will allow him to graduate with a 2nd lower. But with the university's retake policy, he can retake subjects to get better grades. So potentially, he can retake again and again until he gets an A average which will allow him to graduate with 1st class. Any university worth their salt will never allow this especially final year subjects. Even private colleges with "low standards" do not allow this retake policy for final year subjects because classification of honours will take place. What's final is final, even if you fail. But for these universities, even if you pass, you can retake to get better grades to improve CGPA and honours class.

This system truly questions the academic integrity of these universities. It also shows that the universities are more interested in collecting fees (from retakes) than to uphold high academic standards. Even students from the universities themselves are unhappy as their peers who have the money can continue to retake to get better grades and honours, and then giving them an unfair advantage in jobseeking.

I am going to go out on a limb and say what almost no one dare to say. The real reason why these top students are not given the place can only be

1) Its systematically on purpose to 'dumb-down' the non-bumiputra competition in local universities and in directly the workforce. Its nothing less than a systematic culturalized discrimination whose intent is to subjugate.

2) There is an implied understanding that such top students are capable for finding alternatives either in Singapore or elsewhere so that such a purposeful discrimination, in their view, despite its immorality, is practical. If there are several people that falls to the crack, too bad!!! The Malay Agenda is far more important than the destruction of a few young non-bumiputra lives!!!

It is ridiculous that a student is worthy of any course in the top universities of the world is offered the worst course the system has to offer. Its clear systematic protection of Malay elite.

You guys think the University administrators really vet through all the applications?

The hire Form Five school-leavers on a temporary basis to sort the applications in the various programme pigeonholes. They are given some vague guidelines, of course. The fate of every applicant, top-scorers included, lies in the hands of these Form Five boys. If a 4A-scorer's application is tossed into Fisheries at UMS, that is that.

To anon @ Fri Jun 23, 08:22:54 PM,To answer your question on whether it is STUPID or SMART that despite been offered your first choice in UM back then after your STPM, you turned it down and go down south, NUS.Of course you are SMART but SELFISH. Why selfish? If you have intended to go down south, why applied locally and deprived other student a place.Regards,LLL

From the grunts of dissatisfactions shown above I do hope all of you have the wisdom to choose the proper party in the next election.Let your ballot power speaks!If you all do not then all these blood sweat and tears and groans and grunts come to nothing.Next year will definitely be a repeat of this year!

Dear LLL, it may have sounded that i was selfish, but i only made up my mind after considering some sort of cost-benefit scenario. I never intended to go down south when i penned down my choices on the UPU form. I was just applying NUS and NTU for fun.

However, i rejected UM's offer immediately once i received it. I was hoping that someone worth could have taken up my place, but then i heard from people that a place that was abandoned will always be abandoned, the most being transfered to worthless students.

On the other hand, even if i never applied local universities, how sure you were that "my place" will be given to someone worth of it? This is MALAYSIA, or some people like to call her BOLEHLAND.

I really like the title: "Managed Meritocracy". It is conflicting and non-existent.

Doing the right thing in Malaysia is extremely difficult because of the different perception by different races. This is aggrevated by the limited interaction between the youths of different race today.

The National Service Program does increase interaction for a selected few but it does not address the racial stereotype conveyed by our parents. We are told we are defined by our race. We are Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban or others first, then Malaysian second.

Children of different races sharing the same tent will quickly realize everyone else are much alike. We can joke, have fun, enjoy each others company. But deep down, we remind ourselves we are not equals because we were born with different skin color and the origins of our ancestors define who we are. Though we were born and live in the same country, there is a clear distinction between us.

The fact that students do score a CGPA of 3.6 or 3.7 but do not get the course of their choice further strengthen the perception and deepen resentment. It is unlikely the Ministry of Higher Education would come clean with the exact criteria. It will be like opening Pandora's Box.

To anon @ Fri Jun 23, 08:22:54 PM,Thanks for the explanation, however, I am very sure that "your place" will definitely given to a someome worth it ( quite sure will be of the same race as you,I am assuming that you are a non-Bumi) if you have not applied. Whatever it is, a mistake is a mistake and it is past now.Anyway, make the most of the education you are receiving now in NUS."Perhaps too many bikini girls affected my concentration :P "Please concentrate on your studies, forget about bikini girls now, don't play play, okay?All the best to you.

I recommend those that cant enter the local universities try applying for Nanyang Polytech in Singapore.I heard there is a very famous video production starring one of the students thereIt cannot be boring there...hehe

While we are in the midst of grumbling the injustice of the government policies years after years (hi Tony, I'm expecting your blogs carrying the same topics next year), have we ever asked ourselve "Do we give in too much?" So much so that we are losing every single oppotunity (especially education) in our own land of birth?

Do you consider yourself a Malaysian? If so, why are you letting your government treating you like a 'Pariah' or third-class citizen? It is so obvious that every government policy targets to benifit certain sect of ethnic and ultimately driving another sect of enthnic away from Malaysia? They are building the kingdom of Muslim-Malay and islamising this land. What have we the non-bumiputra 'actually' done to stop this crap apart from blogging, ranting and grumbling year after years?? Is it effective? I don't know but Tony, what else we can REALLY do to protect our own right? I'm so disappointed and thinking of giving up my citizenship. Ya, I'm a reject from Malaysian government (back in 12 year ago), I have waited for 12 years hoping the present government will one day come to its senses and realise how much harm they have done to Malaysia. I conclude here that there won't be any change and reckon it will be getting worse unless we 'really' do something and 'really' voice out our disgruntlement.

Ya, right. Endless discussion for those who have pretty much spare time sipping their coffee, ranting how inefficient our education system is and how the non-bumiputra being suppressed. But what have you done to stand up for your right as a citizen apart from occationally posting your senseless comment to this blog comfortably in your bedroom? I'm not seeking your leadership here (which I don't see you have one though), rather asking the non-bumiputras to stand up and do something to this.

Yes, methink we can't do much to change the current scenario - our current BN government is too smart for the voters to vote them out. No, in fact, too smart for the voters to even deny the current BN government 2/3 majority rule.

Just look at the way the BN government carved out various ethnic-based constituencies in the name of democracy. Think about postal votes. That's why the BN government or actually UMNO continues to sweet talk and then gets the civil servants to carry out actions that favour Malays in all fields (education, business, banking, agriculture, defence, etc), blatantly disregarding the feelings and aspirations of non-Malay youngsters.

In issues related to education, scholarships, and entries to public universities, the same lies and manipulations are there for us to see every year come March, April, May, and June.

Heartache for non-Malays, especially those from economically disadvantaged families, who fail to get scholarships and entries into matriculation or privileged professional courses, despite outstanding results. The message is clear: take what you are given or leave it or even get out. So what even if you have brilliant SPM or STPM results?

Joy for Malays - many of whom from rich or super-rich families and have multiple choices in terms of scholarships and entries into pre-university (such as pusat asasi sains, matriculation, overseas colleges, etc; but no 6th Form or STPM, that's no no) or privileged professional courses. Many entered public universities through easier non-STPM routes, predominantly reserved for the Malays.

Remember the figures of various racial groups offered places in public universities (given by the government) are incomplete.

All these I don't think we can change. Defeatism? Sad but true. Some of you think that things will change come the next general elections. Fat hope. The whole election system is so fine tuned by the BN government that the outcome will always favour the incumbent. Unless the Malays give up on UMNO and all the goodies that they enjoy now.

So, what's the purpose of this blog? What's the point of us writing or ranting here, as some wrote?

By sharing their personal experiences, frustrations, aspirations, tenacity, and perseverance in this blog, non-Malays, especially those who came from economically disadvantaged families and who had gone through this excruciating journey or nightmare of discrimination at the tender age of post-SPM or post-STPM, but had subsequently done well through various ingenious ways or routes, could inspire fellow desperate young non-Malays in despair to look forward and move ahead in their lives.

Every success story, every information on available financial aids, scholarships, and study loans, every tip on how to apply for places in local and foreign universities, every tip on how to study and work part-time in foreign countries, etc. will inspire some readers of the postings in this blog to rise from despair and self-pity to achieve what was thought impossible. Even if one person benefits from the postings in this blog, we should count our blessings!

Young non-Malay students should be encouraged to think out of the box and to take advantage of the system. Think smart and play the right game. For example, in recent years, a large number of students got into the medical faculties of our public universities through the matriculation and pusat asasi sains routes, not through STPM.

Since non-Malays are not accepted into pusat asasi sains, non-Malays who wish to study medicine or dentistry in our public universities should apply for the matriculation course (at least 10% places are for non-Malays). Give themselves a chance, in fact a better chance than through the STPM route (even though some people argue that STPM gives a better training – so what if it is excellent but does not increase your chance of getting into the medical course, even with 4 As).

Apply for a place in the matriculation course. If rejected, appeal and appeal. Do not give up easily. Why? Because Malay students, after SPM, have many avenues to study their pre-university courses. Many of them have multiple offers – a place here and a place there. They can go the pusat asasi sains way, the matriculation way, the A-levels way, or the IB way. So, after SPM, many Malay students will take some time to pick and choose one of the multiple offers that they have. After they have chosen one offer and rejected the other offers, there will be vacant places, for example, in matriculation centres. These vacant places might be offered to non-Malays who were unsuccessful in the first round of selection but appeal. So, don’t give up easily. Persevere. Good luck.

As for Tony and Kian Ming putting their names is one thing. But as for Tiara, I am not even sure if that is her real name or just a nickname. If it is a nickname its identity is as good as using anonymous as a nickname

Be real. Tony is the blogger while Kian Ming a co-blogger. That's the reason they use the real name. And as for 'Tiara', neh.. it reminds me the name of one of the Proton cars. I would rather choose to stay anonymous like you, but it doesn't mean I'm as coward as you. It doesn't make sense if I put up name that sounds so real(that could actually dupe other anons, well.. including you) such as 'Tan Ku Ku' or 'Saga' :-) and yet it is actually not mine. Wise up, friend.

My bad if I had offended you, like what you said it is a place for discsussion, not for argument, left alone revolution. Right? FYI, the r-word is the strong word and I bet it is a last thing came out from my mind.

Truly, I'm quite impressed with the work done by Tony and Kian Ming who have contributed so much to the those who are seeking for guidance especially the non-bumiputras. They provide know-hows and virtually path the way for them towards the realisation of various opputinities to pursue the higher educations.

As I mentioned before that I'm also one of the rejects, fortunately my thirst for knowledge didn't stop me at the STPM level. I moved on and ultimaltely I clenched what I wanted. I was so angry with the government then and I chose to stay in the overseas. And again don't brand me as coward, my choise to stay overseas could blind me from that fact that the non-bumiputras are being 'di-tindas'. Strangely, 'tindas' is the word that I learnt from Sejarah on how British 'menindas' us, I hope you get what I mean ;-). Well, See no evil, hear no evil, right? The recent development of the current state warns me the non-bumiputra is losing out even under the ABB administrator. I do have an idea but I need contributions from various parties, the contribution here is not in dollar terms but the expertise . The idea may sound wild but I think it is workable. I wouldn't want to read out my idea unless you people 'really' want to standup for you right, as a Malaysian.

Signing off.. stillSOBER.

PS: look like we have referee here, nice work anon @ 02:44:09pm. Go and get in the queue there for your pay at counter C.

Always renew your determination because the most important thing is not to give up. Youth is the time for building your foundation in life. Just like tall buildings depend on solid and secure foundation, do not shy away from hard work towards your dreams if you want to really build yourself a great future.

Actually i wonder, why can't we, the non-bumi, start our own funding organisation? This way, we no longer depends on JPA or MOHE. If those bright students are denied entrance to local universities, this organisation will fund them overseas, but make sure they pay it back for future generation. How about that? Possible? Just my silly thought though :P

If you know Tiara Shafiq, you would know she is a person who has an opinion and is not afraid to voice it. It is a virtue many citizens of Malaysia don't have.

To my knowledge, no one here spoke up. The course of least resistance is to do nothing. No one wants to take that plunge into the murky waters of uncertainty.

Because of that, we are here typing our opinions. It brings together discontented people from across the globe.

I sincerely hope you share your ideas openly. Like so many before us, ideas like starting our own scholarship fund, making do with the opportunities given to us, and such has been discussed to death. If you have a good idea, let's hear it.

I respect Tony, Kian Ming and Tiara for revealing their real names because it makes them accountable for what they say. They are willing to have their opinions openly scrutinized and contested. That is the reason why Tiara was attacked so vehemently for her unpopular comments.

I have not seen any people here with the 'expertise' you are talking about. The only people I see who leaves comment anonymously here are disgruntled people who wish to share their sad story and use this as an outlet for their anger. That of course includes yours truly.

Make no mistake, us 'people' are unhappy about the current situation. You are asking non-bumis to stand up for their rights. Again, walking the talk is not easy. 'Wanting' to and actually 'doing' it are a separate things.

Unless you plan a covert operation by anons, it is hard to see where you are going. Please enlighten me.

I feel sad to hear all these issues pertaining on non-fair practice on education for non-bumiputra. but I am surprise that some of you only aware this issues in 2006, I have figure it out since 1990.

Base on my own experience, I opted not to take STPM, even i am an average SPM student. I have given up hope of the government education system becuase it damm boring to study their syllabus.

In fact opted to take up professional diploma course part-time while working in the industry. This has given me double edge advantage, a qualification that recognised by industry and industry experience. By the time I reach 21 I have already got promoted to lead an entire team, while others are out to seek for employment.

When I reach 27, with years of managerial experience I apply to study MBA with prior recognise learning concepts and infact i peform much better compare to my degree peers.

How much I have invested in education? About 12K for diploma and 21K for MBA, total about 33K. That is about the fees of existing program degree program by public university.

So people, don't envy those in public university system as well, since the IPTA student's make-up of majority of umemployed graduate, there are about 100K of them.

I am planning to take up PhD by next year, since I love to learn. OUM route is still a good consideration, don't complaint, adapt and be creative in creating your own future.

Be competitive, be smart, seek for alternative solution, don't follow the government direction, create your own destiny.

Hello, who’s talking about fighting or revolution? Fighting for your rights, for your equal rights in your motherland by non-Malays? Don’t you study history and learn from history? It’s too late now. Non-Malays in Malaysia do not have equal rights right from 31.8.1957. Over the last 49 years, non-Malays are losing more and more of their rights. What % of population do non-Malays constitute now, compared to, say, 10 years ago? You think things will get better if you fight for your birth rights as a citizen born here. Fat hope! Racial discrimination is guaranteed, endorsed, and protected here.

Non-Malays will never be treated as equals of Malays in this land. What are non-Malays to the government? Lallang. Haven’t you heard of ‘Operasi Lallang’? Check your history. Only during the general elections, that short period, will the government condescend to treat non-Malays as non-lallang and sweet talk and give empty promised to non-Malays to swindle their votes.

For non-Malay SPM and STPM students, learn from history, get real and accept the real politics. Then plan and strategise how to get the best out of the real world here, and how to survive with dignity in Malaysia and not wallow in self pity, rejection, disbelief, depression, denials, etc. etc. Be proactive and decide your destiny. Daniel Chang, for instance, was sensible and did a great job in deciding his own destiny.

The trouble is many non-Malay SPM and STPM students are not realistic. Yes, by right, all non-Malay high achievers who score lots of A1s and As in SPM and STP and who come from economically disadvantaged families should be supported financially to enable them to further their studies, as education will enable them to break away from their disadvantaged background. However, in the current scenario, you and I know that this is not so. If you were offered scholarships and places in the faculties that you applied for in our public universities, count your blessings and thank you guardian angels.

Some non-Malays are lucky but many are not. We can only sympathize and empathize with them. Non-Malay SPM and STPM students, no matter how excellent their examination results are, should learn not to rely solely on our government for handouts and charity. They cannot compare with their Malay counterparts.

Non-Malay SPM and STPM students must have contingency and non-offer or non-acceptance plans. If you expect or confident of getting brilliant SPM or STPM results, be adventurous and apply for other programs or scholarships, e.g., ASEAN Scholarships. Take SAT and TOEFL, get brilliant scores, and try applying for scholarships from universities in the US. Apply to other foreign universities for scholarships and places of studies. Try. If you are really that brilliant, you must know how to carry out research and explore all avenues to get the education you need to move up the social ladder. After all, these days the Internet or Google is only a click away! The worst thing here is the many non-Malay students with lots of As expecting scholarships and places in professional courses to be offered to them. They do nothing, just waiting for the glorious handouts from our government. They forgot that, these days, there are lots and lots of brilliant kids around, both Malay and non-Malay!

Failing all, non-Malay STPM students with brilliant results may apply for study loans from banks to pursue their education. In the West, this is a common practice.

Where there's a will, there's a way! Furthermore, god helps those who help themselves.

Someone wrote: “Actually i wonder, why can't we, the non-bumi, start our own funding organisation? .... If those bright students are denied entrance to local universities, this organisation will fund them overseas, but make sure they pay it back for future generation.”

As usual, good idea. However, in practice, not easy. Again, we can learn from history. Actually, there are organizations that have set up revolving interest-free student loan funds to support non-Malay students, bright or academically average, to study in universities locally or overseas. The sad truth is that many of them who received study loans do not remember to repay their loans after graduation. These ungrateful non-Malay students think their study loans are non-repayable scholarships or people are obliged to pay for their studies. They forgot that the organizations need their repayments to refill the revolving funds to support other young non-Malay students.

I know this for a fact because I have been involved in a student loan fund for more than 30 years and I have encountered many ungrateful so-called educated non-Malay students, who cried and begged for the study loans during their interviews but conveniently forgot to repay their loans after graduation! They forgot the generosity of many magnanimous donors.

That was a good comment on the issues at hand. I agree that students nowadays are unrealistic, no matter how brilliant they are. The word "brilliant" i meant here is that they only knows how to score for As, but lack of common senses and general knowledges. Internet has been used as a platform for nonsense - porn, chatting, bullshiting, etc rather than as a source of informations.

Thanks to the govenrment, part of those ugly attitudes by our non-bumi students is due to the successes of Malaysia's "brain-washing" education system. For instance, check our history textbooks, and compare with foreign version. You will realise some discrepancies in the historical facts given. Don't forget the environment too.

Another part has to be given credit to the parents. Ask yourself, how many of you actually decide you own path? What are you going to do? What is your interest? Parents have instilled what you will become in the end. They only tell you by getting good results, you can survive in the society. Of course that is true, but they forget to tell you how one-sided is this country.

In the end, we have no one to blame but ourselves. I am not suggesting a revolt against the government, rather think sensibly. If you suffered bad treament from government, tell and prevent your children from having the same fate. What's done is done. Don't cry but keep moving. Period

For those who had signed the Article 11 online petition must have received the following email :-

==================Dear Friend,

I am the individual who wrote and created the Open Letter to the government entitled 'Reaffirming the supremacy of the Federal Constitution' that you had signed in support.

As some of you may have read on 22nd June, an Article 11 delegation presented a total of 18,156 signatures in support of the open letter to the government.

My friends and I at Article 11 shall be continuing in our endeavour to garner further support for the Open Letter which we believe encapsulates the aspirations of every Malaysian who cherishes a just and equitable society.

I am therefore writing now to appeal to you to make time to forward the open letter to your friends or relatives who may not have yet signed the same.

G'day and Greetings to fellow "comrades."This blog is indeed commendable. Excellent I should say.

To address the issue about voting, you can't say that Americans are dumb to vote for Bush. If you have been following the campaign, there are much more that just Bush and his Middle Eash policy and you must understand that the media controls our level of knowledge here which ultimately is controled by the government as this is not a capitalisme country.Why most of the time we see majority of the votes goes to BN because everytime when the time is near the election, money flows much more within the country then when the campaign is over. Government will try to spend more to get the money flowing and more businessmen especially Chinese (60% of the riches in Malaysia belongs to Chinese) get windfalls. Do you get the picture?

Secondly, if you see that the tertiary education in Malaysia is so bad and beyond our means of "repairing," I'd say that we urge companies big or small to boycott public local "graduates" who do not achieve satisfactory CGPAs or students staying in university for a very long time without an extremely good reason by not hiring them. I suppose that a degree from a local public is mediocre from what I read from this blog. If you are a CEO or a Resource Manager please do your part in making VCs and Ministers realise and not just realise, but to act.

Third, about Malay supremacy in Malaysia. There are 2 points which I want to bring forth.

3.1 We always do hear about third class mentality, this is third class mentality and I will say that again, THIS IS THIRD CLASS MENTALITY! Government can only say that we are to strive to throw our "third class mentality" and embrace world class mentality but action speak louder than words my comrades. The result: TODAY. Look at the United States, a clear example of diversity. The Government say look at their practises of corruption in ethics and moral values, we should not follow them but look east. Oh PElease, didn't GOD make us to see the good and bad? See Kofi Annan and Collondenzawhatever (sorry) Rice. Did the US say that "ketuanan orEng putEh" so colored people can't hold top post? That could be... in 1960s. is the Malaysian Government still in oblivion and in an abyss? Or maybe their brains could not adapt to the changes of the world. What did Malaysia fight for when there was aparheid in South Africa? I would really appreciate that if South Africa could point their fingers at us. (I mean the Government)

3.2 I was studying history 1/2 an hour ago and it dawn to me something really important. If you can just turn your Form 4 History textbok (if you still had one, I would have dispose it if I left school, haha) In Chapter 5, it talks about all boring stuff until I read the Madinah Constitution which states that "social justice is practise" and "it succeded in harmonising the people for there were no DISCRIMINATION" in other parts of the textbook, it repeatedly says that there were many who were coverted to Islam for they were attracted to the "same class morality" in other words, EQUALITY. How much can I stress this point longer? It is as obvious as looking at our "prided KLCC" within 1 mile radius. Malaysia is called an Islam nation but are the Muslims practising it? (No offence people)

Are we to be forgotten after helping you people fight against the British, Malayan Union, Communist, Indonesians, Philipines and A.M. Azahari over the forming of Malaysia?

Look at the Civil War that happen in the US when the act of slavery was abolished, the colored were in arms fighting alongside with the North folks who supported Abraham Lincoln against the Souths who was lead by General Lee. Alas, defeat came upon the South. What can we learn from their history? Unity is strength.

We don't go picking on the bad idealism that the West has, we learn from the good but shy away from the bad. Same goes to the ideology of the Communism, what is the product? Malaysia who practises a mix of capatalism and communism in economic policy.

The government pushes the students to learn from History and is mandatory for all students to take it for SPM. But what do we see in their actions?

I have no suprise when many whom I know are emigrating either to the US or Australia, some even Singapore. It sometimes do make me envy them for they get better education but mre importantly, diversity without discrimination. It touches my heart sometimes when I sing Negaraku during the assembly in school, why? Because I am singing it without the feeling of patriotisme for the country, you could say that I am singing it for the sake of singing, you are right. But it touches my heart all the time to see free Americans from all walks of life, from the President in Washington DC to the homeless in New York singing the Star Spangled Banner with patriotic feelings and all their might to democracy and the freedom of speech. If you do not believe me, take a look at their stadium before they begin playing baseball or band or whatever.

I got to sleep now but it's a feeling of relieve after all the stress I am having. For me, it's 2 more days before my Form 5 trials and I am exausted from studying.THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR READING AND DO PRAY FOR ME IN MY PURSUIT OF GETTING A DEGREE OUTSIDE MALAYSIA PLEASE.Love you all who reads and contributes to this blog.